Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Love Letter

Dear Hyderabad,

I love you. I am IN LOVE with you. I’ve never even bothered denying it. It would’ve been of no use. You are my first love and everyone knows that first loves stick around for always. Why? I don’t know.

Maybe it was because I put up a fierce resistance and you sneaked up on me anyway.

…bookstalls in Abids…bargaining with fruit sellers…
…chatting in hostel rooms…VC rock…
…walks and train stations…discovering the beauty of dying embers…
…cycling on campus in the darkness…piles of clothes, always PILES!...



Maybe it’s because I put you on a pedestal, being a silly small-town girl that I really am inside. Maybe, it’s because I finally found myself only with you. You were so many firsts. You made me a woman and showed me how to be a girl.

…Peacock lake…Music and OD…
…Long walks and exploring new corners…
…hunting for my own place…creepy real estate brokers…
…dark musty holes that I must call “rooms”…
…deserted roads…maddening hunger…curious neighbors...
…the freedom of dirty rooms…discovering the kitchen…
…the delivery boys who became familiar strangers…an overfull toothbrush stand…
…the thrill of a dining table and a full-length mirror…



Maybe it’s the secrets you shared, all those bits of you that make me cry out with joy and wonder, those tastes that…well…take me places :)

…sunrises and more importantly, sunsets—at the lakes, Sunset Peak, at Golconda, while riding on the MMTS, while lost around Begumpet…
…an autoride from Mehdipatnam to campus…and of course, quarrelling with the auto guy…
…Starless skies and cloud-filled nights…moons that go up and down…
…eat street…Birla temple…tank bund…
…Siddiques! And Temptations!!!...HALEEM!...Qubani ka meetha!...Mint, paan and MORE…




Maybe it’s because I finally found something in you that is just me…and yet not. You make me roll my eyes and smile coz you’re just so adorably infuriating, laugh like a maniac coz only you can say those things…make me livid with unspent anger because as much as you consume me, you are a total shithead, sometimes.

…HCU, all of it, every bit of it…even the most mundane details…
Banjara Hills and GVK One…City Centre…
…Ravindra Bharati…Waterfront…Golconda…theatre and theatrics (ha!)…
…Hyderabadi Hindi? Urdu? Telugu?....Best Books…
……Prasadz…the crowd at Prasadz  …Necklace Road…
…the traffic!!…the ogling eyes(?)...the VISIBLE heat …the mind-numbing cold... the stink…


Maybe it’s because whenever I come to you, even today, it feels like I’m coming home.

…autowallahs…Hyderabadi, just Hyderabadi…Biryani…Hussein Sagar…Prasadz…MMTS rides…


I don’t know all the whys, but the maybes always seem to overwhelm me.

I don’t know you, really. I haven’t seen many sides of you, so many places and things that make you YOU. But the pieces of you that I’ve managed to make my own will stay with me for far too long. I know I should not think of returning, but then, I’ve never been much good at “should NOTs.”

With love and nostalgia,

Me at my lone roof

8 comments:

  1. One of those numerous acute nostalgic pangs for Hyderabad, and many more to come. Such recollections always make me re-evaluate and realize what the city means to me too.

    Unfortunately, we are again about to see some trouble here after today's developments but I believe, like we discussed last year after your "The Nosemen Broke My Home" post, that Hyderabad will always retain its charm no matter what.

    P.S: Loved the pic of the messy room :D Though it's not yours, I believe

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  2. Oh man. That was epic. Excuse me, I have to go to the hospital now to get treatment for getting hit by a nostalgia train.

    Tart.

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  3. :) this has been the highlight of my day...make that my week!

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  4. dude!! u made my day.. its awesome.. brings back memories of hyd.. although i did realize there is so much of hyd i haven't seen :( :( :(.. will HAVE to make a trip now..

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  5. Whaddaya think?????
    Can I think up something other than the fellow readers above me have already not said.
    Can I?? WOW!!!
    Dude!!..this post will remain with me always..
    like it or not.. I love Hyderabad too..and I say this often.. If Hyderabad were a person I'd marry it right away!

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  6. doooood, i wanna kiss it, be naughty with it, make loooooveeee to it, marry it, have babies with it and then in the end, die with it!!! ;))

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  7. Good One.
    Really liked the non-stop flashes of colorful images and the defining process.
    Loved it.
    Want more...................................................................................................................................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  8. @ Gogs: Yeap...not MY messy room, but mine was pretty close, eh? Sorry you guys had to see it...or, actually, naaahh..

    @ Caro: U know what the real treatment for this is :P

    @ Vaish and Aksh: I'm sooooooooooo glad to have made your days and weeks. Its a bloody honor :P Keep coming back. And yeas...I cant believe there are not I *HEART* Hyderabad T-Shirts! Huge market there! I'd buy 'em in every colour! Heheh

    @Jas and Su: Ummm...I've called my dibs long ago. :P (Are we making Hyd a lesbian whore, btw?)

    @ Manu: Thank you sooooooooo much...and thank you for being such a wonderful part of MY Hyderabad! :)

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WHADDAYA THINK?